Saturday, 23 January 2016

Mumbra man is India recruiter for ISIS, had videos of women being assaulted on his hard drive

Update (Jan 22) NIA gets transit remand of alleged ISIS recruit from Thane. "During the investigation, the role of the accused was revealed. We have got some incriminating material and some documents were recovered from him," the probe agency informed.

Mumbra man is India recruiter for ISIS: Cops

After the arrest of Abdul Sheikh and four others from the Mumbra township in the Mumbai region, it has now been revealed that one of the arrested is allegedly a recruiter for ISIS. The 'ameer' or leader of Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind (Soldiers of the Caliphate in India) is Muddabir Mushtaq Shaikh alias Abu Musab. An ATS officer makes the ridiculous claim that Muddabir sent direct reports to the head of Daesh, Abu Bakr Al Baghadi himself!

One of the five suspected ISIS sympathisers arrested yesterday is a
34-year-old IT professional from Mumbra. A team comprising NIA and ATS
officials, including eight officers and 10 constables, raided a rented
apartment in Mumbra at 3 am yesterday and took Muddabir Mushtaq Shaikh
alias Abu Musab into custody.

Shaikh, accused of being the primary recruiter for the extremist
group in India, was later produced in the NIA court for transit remand.
He will be produced in Patiala court after three days. A graduate from a
Nallasopara-based college, Shaikh is married and has two children. Shaikh has been booked under Section 125 (waging war against any
Asiatic Power in alliance with the Government of India) of IPC along
with various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

ISIS’ Man Friday

Sources close to the
investigation claimed the investigating agencies had shadowed Shaikh’s
activity for over six months. “Once we secured enough evidence to prove
his links with the extremist group, we raided his residence and arrested
him,” said an ATS officer, adding that Shaikh would update his
mission’s progress directly to ISIS head Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

“We are collating information from his various social media accounts
and phone calls with the extremist group’s chief. We also discovered
that he was being funded by the extremist group for the past few months,
which took care of his livelihood,” added the officer.

Cop speak

Commenting on Shaikh’s arrest, an ATS
officer said, “Post-marriage he lived in Nallasopara for nearly two
years (2009-2011). Later, four years ago, the Shaikhs shifted into a
rented apartment in Mumbra. An IT professional, Shaikh was working for a
firm in Goregaon and made around Rs 60,000 a month. He quit his job
about 18 months ago and since then has been active on various social
networking sites.”

Another officer claimed Shaikh was found active on a social
networking site at the time of the raid. “We seized three cellphones
from his house. While one was his, the other two belonged to his wife
and daughter. We also confiscated a hard disk, wherein we found videos
of women being physically and sexually assaulted. We suspect that he was
initially lured into watching these videos, so that he could be
brainwashed later.

Further investigation is on,” the officer added. Sources claimed cops
found codes on his cellphones, which they suspect were meant to set off
explosives using the handset.

Wife says

“Around 3 am on Friday, a few officers
entered our house and seized the laptop and a few other things. They
asked me about his profession and other details, following which they
left the home with him. They told me that they were taking him for
questioning,” said Ujma, Shaikh’s wife.

Previous link

Being an ISIS recruiter, cops are
now investigating whether the four youths from Kalyan — Areeb Majeed,
Fahad Shaikh, Shaheem Tanki and Aman Tandel — were in touch with Shaikh.
“We are probing whether the four youths, who left Kalyan to joined the
extremist group, were in touch with Shaikh. We also suspect that the
four Malwani youths, who wished to join ISIS, were in touch with him,”
said an officer.

Confirming Shaikh’s arrest, Vivek Phansalkar, ATS chief (Maharashtra)
said, “The operation was conducted by a joint team of NIA and ATS,
which raided his residence in the wee hours of Friday. The NIA officers
immediately took his custody and are probing the matter further.”

Neighbours speak

When mid-day spoke to a few of Shaikh’s neighbours, they were shocked to learn that he is an ISIS recruiter.
“I rarely saw him leaving his house. But a few of us would see him
visiting the mosque to offer prayers, five times a day, without fail,”
said a neighbour.